History Detectives

The Spirit of St. Louis/Gary Powers' "Suicide Pin"

The Spirit of St. Louis - Two brothers from Parsippany, New Jersey, grew up listening to their uncle's claim that he built the engine for the Spirit of St. Louis - the plane made famous by Charles Lindbergh'shistoric nonstop flight across the Atlantic. A letter addressed to the uncle from the Wright Aeronautical Corporation in 1927 thanks him for his "enthusiasm and outstanding cooperation" following "Captain Lindbergh's recent achievement," but makes no direct mention of his role in the event. The family legend leads HISTORY DETECTIVES to uncover the forgotten history of Lucky Lindy's legendary flight. Gary Powers' "Suicide Pin" - A toolmaker and artist in Kansas City, Missouri, found two peculiar pins, wrapped in a newspaper dated 1960, that had been manipulated to contain liquid. Could these pins be the prototypes of a poison-filled pin that U2 pilot Gary Powers was carrying when his spy-plane was shot down over the Soviet Union? HISTORY DETECTIVES takes a closer look at Cold War intrigue and the device that may have fueled the ultimate showdown. Image of Apache Warrior Geronimo - A New Mexico woman's great-great- grandfather was lieutenant governor of the New Mexico territory in the 1870s. Her only keepsake from that time is a photograph of an Indian warrior on horseback. On the back of the photo are the words, Geronimo saluting a crowd of 100,000 people and surrounded by U.S. "soldiers at Ranch 101." HISTORY DETECTIVES investigates the connection between the lieutenant governor, Ranch 101 and the legendary Apache warrior.